Reid takes on Rubio in hometown paper

4/2/12 10:01 AM EDT

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took to Sen. Marco Rubio's hometown newspaper, the Miami Herald, over the weekend, leveling a preemptive strike against any version of the DREAM Act Republicans might introduce.

Some excerpts:

[A]larmed Republicans are papering over their party's lurch to the right with opportunistic half-measures that don't solve the crisis faced by young people. ... These half-measures would exclude hundreds of thousands of such young people," Reid wrote in a Sunday op-ed. "One such House Republican proposal has an age limit of 18 and 1/2 and would apply only to individuals who enroll in a four-year university. ... The House proposal also excludes community college students, slamming the door on young people at institutions like the College of Southern Nevada and Miami-Dade College. Other Republicans proposals would go so far as to deny citizenship to young people. ... the Republican plan to relegate hundreds of thousands of young people to a permanent underclass is unprecedented in American law or history, and goes against the basic American value of equal opportunity. Instead of bringing us closer to a solution, these measures move the discussion further away from the productive middle ground once occupied by Senator Hatch and other Republicans.

The op-ed never mentions Rubio by name, but it's no secret the senator is considering introducing a form of the DREAM Act.